My post today actually has two points of emphasis. That probably violates one of the primary rules of good writing, which is to present a thesis and then support it with a clear and powerful narrative. But here I go nonetheless.

To start, I refer you to a very clever and thought-provoking infographic by Jacob Shriar entitled The Working Dead: The Cost of Low Employee Engagement.  In my opinion, this infographic works exactly as an infographic should. It’s clear, compelling and uses images to quickly and effectively advance its message.

As such, it’s the complete (and happy) opposite of so many other infographics, which tend to be dense and difficult to follow. In far too many cases, I open such infographics and then immediately close them, thinking “I’m not going to try to figure that out.”

This brings me to my first point, which is that simplicity – or more precisely stated, simple elegance – matters. Here at QIC, we promise to keep this guidance foremost when designing your incentive or recognition program site and communications.

Now on to the second (more important) point, and that is that the infographic delivers a totally accurate message. While I suspect that most of you would acknowledge and understand that workforce disengagement is bad, you may not have considered the multiple dimensions of its impact. This infographic does an excellent job of articulating the scope of the problem.

So, what are actionable implications of this message?

• The first is to take stock of your current situation. Use the impact areas in the infographic as a guide to assessing important metrics, e.g., absenteeism, sick day usage, customer complaints and defections, etc.
• The second step is to identify the root causes of the problem conditions. In many cases, employee disengagement is a function of poor processes that repeatedly put those folks in difficult situations.
• The obvious next step is to modify those processes that seem most problematic.
• Finally, consider the implementation of a recognition program that awards employees for following and reinforcing those new processes.

Here at QIC, we’ve seen many instances of the “working dead.” We know what to look for and are ready to assist you in making sure that your company doesn’t look like the one in the infographic.